Maximising opportunities for people through creative arts and media

British Winters – a community filmmaking success story

British Winters is based on book of the same title, written by the film’s director Andrew Turner.

After finishing university in 2008, Andrew was keen to do something creative. Without the resources to put his idea on the big screen he decided to write his novel, British Winters (available on Amazon.co.uk).

The story is about Noel Winters, a lazy procrastinating youth who is no longer young enough to pull that lifestyle off. The film follows this hapless protagonist through the festive season and into the new year. Noel is disillusioned with himself as much as the outside world but he draws inspiration from his younger adopted sister, Hannah, a ray of sunny optimism in his blinkered outlook on life. The adaptation to film came along with the start of TAPE’s Coastline Film Festival. Part of that project’s remit was to make a feature film and screen it at the 2016 festival. Andrew has been involved with TAPE for few years, so the book is known by the charity. Steve Swindon, TAPE’s CEO is a fan.

“The idea of combing the TAPE ethos, maximizing peoples potential through arts and media, into the creation of British Winters, really appealed to me. I’m a big believer in community projects and having worked with TAPE on other projects, I’ve seen how successful they can be. The idea of using local businesses for filming locations, local talent from amateur dramatic societies and local bands for music – it’s one big community effort.” – Andrew Turner

The the film premiered at the The Coastline Film Festival 2016 and is touring cinemas around the UK. The film recently played to a packed house at FACT in Liverpool and is next heading for the Rio Cinema in London and the BFI HQ in July.

https://riocinema.org.uk/RioCinema.dll/WhatsOn?Film=9457651

The film will then head to the 16th Festival Intergalactique de L’Image Alternative in Brest, France where it has been selected to screen on the Saturday night of the festival.

Following the success of British Winters, the TAPE team have begun work on the next community feature film project. More on that very soon!